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Exercises to do with your newborn!

When your little one is first born she is so precious, fragile and very dependent on her Mommy and Daddy to keep her safe until she is able to do things on her own. A newborn builds up her strength little by little with every arm lift, leg kick and neck turn. There are some movements that you can help her with that can improve her strength so she can become independent a little quicker. These baby exercises are fun and it can also help you bond with your newborn.

Kiara is so cute and delicate and she will be building up her little muscles soon enough!

The first exercise that Kiara should do is one known as tummy time. It’s one of the cutest names I’ve ever heard for an exercise! Putting Kiara on her tummy will help build the muscles in her stomach, back, arms, shoulders and neck. Laying on your tummy with her, singing, and talking to her will encourage her move around a little more. It’s normal for her to be fussy with this exercise at first. You can start this the first day you bring her home. It’s recommended to start out with 2-3 minutes of tummy time at first and gradually increase the time as she starts to like it more. The maximum amount of time is about 20 minutes a day. Hopefully by that time she will already be turning herself over and initiating her own tummy time exercise!

The second exercise is baby sit-ups. This will help strengthen Kiara’s shoulders, core, arms and back. Her neck is not quite strong enough yet, so instead of just pulling her up by her arms you need to put your hands behind her head and shoulders to keep her head from flopping back. Even though it seems like you’re doing all of the work, Kiara is naturally flexing her abdominal muscles to keep her head aligned with her body. This exercise also helps her build balance on top of strengthening her muscles.

Another good exercise that has more than one purpose is called bicycling. It will strengthen her legs, hips, knees and core. This move can also help relieve baby gas! It helps improve Kiara’s range of motion and her flexibility. All you have to do with this exercise is put Kiara on her back and move her legs around in a pedaling motion (like a bicycle). You can try this move three to five times in a row and if she is laughing and smiling after that keep going!

The last exercise that I would suggest for Kiara is a little weight lifting. This one is very simple and most babies do it naturally because of their instinctive curiosity of the world. Simply putting toys and certain objects in front of her and encourage her to pick each one up will help build up Kiara’s hand-eye coordination, shoulders, arms and hand strength. She will be even more enthusiastic about weight lifting if her weights (toys) make noises and light up!

If you want to get some more ideas on what exercises you can help your baby with click here!